12 Fascinating Facts That Show Celebrities From an Unexpected Angle

Oftentimes, celebrities’ roles and the characters they play overshadow the real people underneath. And sometimes we only need one fact to make the overall image of a star shine with new colors and to see this person from a different angle. For example, Emma Watson turned out to be a yoga instructor, while Kit Harington can outshine any of the lords from Game of Thrones with his origin.

Bright Side prepared a compilation of these unexpected facts for you. While preparing this article we ourselves had our jaws on the floor. And we hope we will be able to change your opinion about the celebrities who seem to be so familiar to us.

1. Kit Harington is a Baronet’s son.

It’s only in Game of Thrones where Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington, is a bastard raised in the house of a noble father just out of grace. In real life, Kit, or Christopher Catesby Harington, is the son of a 15th baronet Harington, Sir David Robert Harington. Kit is the eighth-great-grandson of Charles II of England. The actor’s family has its own family coat of arms, and viscounts, peers, and dukes were there among his relatives.

2. The husbands of Nicole Richie and Cameron Diaz are twins.

Joel Madden is the front man of the band Good Charlotte, and his brother Benji Madden is a guitar-player and back-vocalist for the same band. Joel is the husband of television personality, actress, and singer Nicole Richie, and they have been married for more than 10 years. It was Nicole who introduced her friend Cameron Diaz and her husband’s brother to each other in 2014. They got married less than a year later.

3. Ewan McGregor’s brother is a British Air Force pilot.

Hollywood star Ewan McGregor has an older brother named Colin. He was the family’s biggest hope, not Ewan who performed poorly in school. By the way, their family is a part of an old Scottish clan. Colin was the head of his class and the captain of the school sports team. And, as we all now know, the career of his younger brother Ewan has outshined all of his achievements. Colin also built a sparkling career and became the pilot of a fighter plane and, together with his younger brother, starred in a film released for the centenary of the British Air Force.

4. Princess Märtha Louise, the Princess of Norway, had to give up on using her title because of her affair with Shaman Durek.

The famous American shaman Durek, whose clients include Gwyneth Paltrow and Nina Dobrev, has gained an ambiguous reputation. For example, he claims that he can change a person’s age. In 2019, a passionate affair started between the Norwegian princess Märtha Louise and the shaman. Later the couple set up their own business — they both travel around the world doing lectures and seminars dedicated to various spiritual practices. However, the princess had to remove her title from the ads of these events because many Norwegians believe that she doesn’t have the right to use it for commercial purposes and that she stains the honor of the royal family by doing it.

5. Charlize Theron’s native language is Afrikaans.

Charlize grew up on a farm in South Africa and her native language is Afrikaans. Theron’s acting career started at the moment when a bank employee refused to cash her check and she lost her composure. After Charlize loudly declared her resentment using all the strong expressions both in English and Afrikaans that she knew, the person standing behind her in the line gave her his business card. It was the famous talent agent John Crosby.

6. Scientists named a fern in honor of Lady Gaga.

Scientists named 2 new types of ferns discovered in Costa Rica after Lady Gaga. One of them got the name Gaga germanotta (Germanotta — is the singer’s real surname), and the second one was named Gaga monstraparva, which means “Gaga’s small monsters.”

7. Emma Watson is a certified yoga instructor.

Emma Watson is Hermione not only on screen, but also in real life. Apart from shooting movies, she manages to do many other things. The actress is a UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador and organizer of a book club on Instagram. Also, she learned yoga and meditation and is certified to teach them.

8. Benedict Cumberbatch spent one year in a Tibetan monastery.

Benedict Cumberbatch is a true Londoner and a big fan of this city, but he left for Tibet as he was doing his spiritual searching. He spent one year there after college, learning Buddhist wisdom, meditation, and teaching English.

9. Tilda Swinton is a rebel.

Tilda Swinton is a representative of old Scottish kin. The story of her family is more than 1,000 years old, while her family nest is in Kimmerghame House, which looks more like a fairytale castle than an ordinary house. The Swinton’s aristocratic family was expecting their brilliantly educated daughter to at least marry a duke. But instead, immediately after college, she went as a volunteer to South Africa for 2 years and then joined the Communist Party.

10. Christopher Walken used to be a lion tamer.

Christopher Walken played in more than 100 movies. However, as it turns out, he almost traded an acting career for the circus as a teenager — he worked as a lion tamer in a circus in his youth.

11. Tom Hardy was the winner of a beauty contest.

It is hard to see today’s brutally handsome man in 19-year-old Tom Hardy. Still, it didn’t prevent him from winning a beauty contest, and getting a monetary award and a contract with a modeling agency.

12. Hugh Jackman’s specialization is as a journalist.

Hugh Jackman graduated from the University of Technology in Sydney with a BA in Communications. But by the end of his studies, he realized that he liked to be on the other side of the microphone more and went for acting.

Who is your favorite celebrity?